Thursday August 13, 2009 (Day 15)

DADDY'S DOCTOR IS BACK!! He had left this past Saturday for vacation and was supposed to be gone this entire week. He told us he would be monitoring Daddy's progress while he was gone. Larry and I were sitting in Daddy's room last night and Larry made the comment that "Daddy wouldn't be in this condition if Dr. Chen was here". Well, about 10 min. later Dr. Chen walked through the door. We were surprised and very relieved. He said that he was just not happy with what he was reading in the reports and that he couldn't relax knowing Daddy wasn't doing good so he cut his family vacation short to come take care of Daddy. There's not many Doctors out there that would do that.

Dr. Chen accessed Daddy last night and went over his chart extensively and the medications Daddy was given while he was gone. He questioned why Daddy had been put back on certain medications that he had taken him off of days before he left. One reason Daddy has been so out of it is because he was getting several different pain meds and an anti-psychotic medication, all of which are sedative. Dr. Chen has put him back on one pain med (as needed) and although Daddy may need the anti-psychotic medication for the ICU Psychosis the dosage will be lowered and it will only be given as a last resort. Dr. Chen was also not happy with the way the chest wound (incisions) looked and had the wound specialist meet him first thing this morning and they redid the chest vacuums and Dr. Chen put several more vac lines in to pull the puss and infection out. He also put in orders for the wound specialist to flush the chest wounds 3 times a day with bleach.

Dr. Chen said that Daddy's chest x-ray from this morning was worse so he's called in a Pulmonologist. He also had the Critical Care Doctors' and several other people in Daddy's room this morning with a special machine that allowed them to look down into Daddy's lungs and it also suctioned out any fluid/mucus that was in his lungs. Right now Dr. Chen said that Daddy's lung condition is the biggest concern.

Daddy does have a staff infection. Dr. Chen said that it is MRSA negative, which surprises him but is a good thing. They are pretty confident that the antibiotics he is on will take care of the infections. Dr. Chen is also switching Daddy from heparin to Coumadin which will get another IV out of him.

Daddy's kidneys are a little better, his heart is doing OK his lungs are the biggest concern right now, but Dr. Chen has called in the lung specialist to help with that. Daddy was also awake for a little while this morning (first time in 3 days) and was asking (mouthing) for water. Now with all the procedures he had done this morning they did have to sedate him quite a bit, but Dr. Chen said he did all them at once so Daddy only had to have the heavy sedatives one time. He said now all we can do is wait and let Daddy's body heal. He said that Daddy had a very strong mind and he wished Daddy's body was as strong as his mind.

We'll just have to keep praying that Daddy can put mind over matter and beat this thing. He's still got a long ways to go, but now that Dr. Chen is back and kicking butt things are looking up.